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The other night while visiting with my mother, aunt, and younger cousins I realized that my childhood is about to end and people are going to expect things of me that I had always thought I was prepared for. That is, until last Tuesday...I was talking with my aunt and she starting telling me things about her children and things in her life that adults would normally not tell a teenager, but as a seventeen year-old going into my second year at college she apparently thought I was just as an adult as she is.
My Aunt Denae starting ranting about how her son Kyle was such a disappointment to her. She started telling me about her twelve year-old son who steals cigarettes, runs away, and has a reading level of a second grader like she doesn't care what others would think or with any remorse to Kyle hearing every word she said. Then, Denae proceeded telling me horrible things that had happened to her children while they where with an adopted family while she had them taken away from her for eight months.
At around 1:00 AM my aunt started yelling into the house for Kyle, who came out to the porch after several very loud screams from Denea. Then again she proceeded talking shit on her own son right in front of him. I wanted to interrupt her and ask her to stop, but I didn't have the courage to get into a fight with a drunk lady. Whenever my cousin tried to respond to her ugly comments she told him to shut up because "he didn't know". "You don't even let me talk," he said.
This continued for about fifteen minutes and I started to realize that the reason for Kyle's behavior is probably because his mother treats him like shit. How is a twelve year-old boy supposed to deal with his mother being drunk every night while being bombarded with insults from both his mother and her boyfriend? I also learned that he is on all kinds on medication such as Prozac and something to help his "ADHD" just so the family can get a check from the government.
I thought I needed to help Kyle in some way so the only thing that came to mind that I could do right then was to just tell him that he was not that person his mother says he is and tell him he is an amazing human being. So, after everyone else went to bed I walked into his room to tell him what I thought of his mother. He was awake of course, just like most children during summer vacation. I sat down and told him what I had thought about him and his mother, which in turn he said he knew already, but I saw something different in his eyes then...hope.
That night I realized that some of the bliss from childhood is still there, but some people in my life expect that to be gone by now. Is it right to talk to a seventeen year-old like he is forty? I'm not sure it is...they say I am mature for my age but being able to handle a lot of surprising truths about your family is another matter entirely. I also feel I need to help my cousin have a good childhood, and get him away from his mother for awhile. I'm still thinking on how I should do this, but I'm sure I'll come up with something.
